The Pearlkillers: Four Novellas

by Rachel Ingalls

Though the action is death-ridden and the landscape dour, in each of these four Gothic tales by the author of Mrs. Caliban, it is the chill voice of the narrator that quickens the pulse. In "Third Time Lucky," Lily, whose first two husbands were killed in Vietnam, listlessly rejects all suitors, lavishing her energy on her passion for ancient Egypt. When Don persists in courting her and promises a honeymoon there, she masters her distaste and marries him, presaging another tragedy. The logic of murder is relentlessly upheld in "People to People," as one man kills his four closest friends in order to escape detection for a murder the five had witlessly committed years before. Differing in mood yet maintaining the same distance, the title story deals in live ghosts, the aged, rich great-aunts of Carla, who listens helplessly to tales of their titled cousins, plunderers of the family treasure, and of "pearlkillers," people whose deadly skin causes pearls to shrivel and turn brown. Finally, "Captain Hendrik's Story" unites all the forces doomed journey, women-laced household, deception and murder in Anders Hendrik's recounting of what happened during a voyage to the New World and the record as corrected by a man who was part of the crew. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of these chilling tales is the doom that pervades them from the first sentence.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Rachel Ingalls grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She held various jobs, from theatre dresser and librarian to publisher’s reader. She was a confirmed radio and film addict and started living in London in 1965. She authored several works of fiction—most notably Mrs. Caliban—published in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Andrew Schultheis · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time reading this author. Really enjoyed these stories. "Inheritance" and "Captain Hendrik's Story" are a couple of the best stories I've read in awhile. Looking forward to more.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoyed Dinesan's gothic efforts, you should enjoy Ingalls' quiet horror. This book seems shamefully overlooked, since it's much better than most horror efforts. Literate, creepy, Ingalls creates atmosphere with the best of them.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A disturbing collection of short stories (and a novella-length tale) that take human frailty and the damnation of family as their starting-points. The veneer of respectability is gradually water-damaged through the length of the tales.

Worth reading if you enjoy Eric McCormack.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third Time Lucky: 4 stars. My first Ingalls other than Mrs. Caliban, it had some of the same dreamy vibes, centered on an unlucky and unhappy wife. Hewing closer to realism, this story is probably the strongest in the collection.

People to People: 3 stars. Despite being my least favorite, it was certainly memorable.

Inheritance: 5 stars. Easily my favorite story. As Le Guin notes in her NYT review, it begins poignantly sweet before venturing into Gothic, obscure unease with a neat ending.

Captain Henrik's Story: 3.5 stars. A meandering picaresque of depravity, it felt as 19th century as its setting (in a delicious way).

[Jill Flanagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Ingalls is definitely in the school of the unsettling and strange, the way my favorite writer Robert Aickman is but is more prosaically believably odd than supernatural the way Aickman is.
This book is really three short stories and one novella and my favorite was the title story, the actual novella felt at times that it would have been better as a short story as well but still was quite entertaining.

[lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey! I just caught up with your story and really liked how immersive it feels. Some moments instantly played out in my head like illustrated panels.
I work as a commission-based comic/webtoon artist, and if you’d ever like to talk about a visual adaptation, I’m always open.
📩 Discord & Instagram: lizziedoesitall

[Jacques Denault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the novellas included, "Captain Hendrik's Story" is by far filled with the most heart and intrigue as all the parts seem to magically fall into place. It is a page turner in the truest sense.

[Hagai Palevsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ability to look at familiar things in a new way was just as significant as the discovery of new things to look at for the first time.

[Robert Frecer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As warm and mysterious as a Jan Jelinek album. The ordinary and the supernatural merge to lift these stories out of time into a parallel universe that seems familiar.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A better collection than Days Like Today, not as good as Mrs Caliban and Other Stories. People to People was my favorite.

[Eggp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Travels gone awry
an easy life built on lies
gratefully childless.

[Kidlitter · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good it will make you weep; they are strangely readable, so odd but so engaging. Ingalls was a genius, albeit a chilly one.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book decades ago, when I was in the twenties, at the suggestion of the manager of a bookstore where I worked. Although the manager's taste in books was good, I always remained somewhat resistant to her suggestions. I think the reason is that she was an older white lady, which gave me the feeling that she would like tasteful English women's novels. It is not--and was not--a fair stereotype. The books she recommended that I actually got around to reading proved to be extraordinary--and nothing like the dainty works I imagined she would have been into. This is one of those.

All these years after that initial read, I've kept this book on my shelf. I knew I liked it--a lot. Strangely, however, I haven't read it in the ensuing decades, and that same old prejudice has stuck with me on this one. Do I really want to read this book again? What did I see in it? However, I was taking a trip and I needed a book to read, and in my systematic way of rereading, I was on the letter I. I chose Ingalls. What had I liked about it?

Wow. This book is killer--and that quite literally. The title suggests a theme that continues through the four long stories (or novellas) that make up the work. It comes from a passage in the third story in the collection, which is about a woman who goes to meet her deceased mother's family, whom she's barely ever met. One of her aunts tells of people who when they wear beautiful pearls literally kill them--somehow sucking the vitality and life, the sheen, out of the jewel. Such is the family itself, as we come to feel and see, as the story, which has a magical realism feel, winds its way to its end, wherein the family appears to have some sort of secret to immortality, one that involves sucking the life from others.

The central idea, then, conveyed in the collection, is one of killing the people you love in order to manage your own survival. In the first story, a twice-married young woman goes on her honeymoon with her third husband, scared that somehow she is cursed with an ability to kill off lovers but also aware that she doesn't really love the man she is with.

The second story is my favorite of the book--a thriller and an absolute brute of a piece. College friends accidentally kill/bully a young man in their dorm and hide their part in the death. Years later, one of them decides to come clean. What to do? That is the heart of the discussion among the other surviving friends.

The fourth story, the longest, is also quite brutal. It tells the tale of a explorer/sailor returned to his family after a decade missing, the lone survivor of the journey. Or so we are made to believe.

[Gene Knauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've begun rereading some of Rachel Ingall's books. She's one of my all-time favorite writers. This book with four novellas is an example of a master at work. Fascinating characters, often bizarre plots, unpredictable endings.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the novellas, "Inheritance," is marvelous, and another, "Captain ??'s Story," is good. The first two are kind of duds, though.

[CJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Ingalls should be a billion times more widely read